Launchpad not limited to value line chips

Wanting to use my TI Launchpad as more than just a development board I thought I’d do a few experiments using it as an in-system programmer. After a few tripping points I was able to get it working and then some. It seems that the device is not limited to just the value line of microcontrollers it was intended to support. In the image above I’m using it to program an MSP430F2272 which is a pretty powerful little chip with 32 KB of program space. Click through the break for more information on the setup.

I started by etching a breakout board for the 38TSSOP package so that I had something usable. Drag soldering to the rescue, this turned out to be easier than I had expected.

Once I had access to the pins it was just a matter of checking out the connections used on the Launchpad board and hooking up the f2272. It turns out you only need three; TEST, RST, and GND. You can power the circuit externally or make a fourth connection to the voltage. I was sad to see that the jumper header doesn’t have GND on it so in addition to using an IDC cable, you can see in the image at the top that there’s an orange jumper wire going to the ground-pin breakout from the chip socket.

But I didn’t quite have it working yet. I had problems reliably connecting to and talking to the chip. After studying the schematic (ZIP) I realized I was being plagued by a floating reset pin. I grabbed a 4.7k resistor as a pull-up to volatge and communications are now perfect. For my test code I’m building a small version of pong using a Nokia 3595 LCD screen.

I’m using 100% open source tools for this which means I’m not limited to a 2k code output. You can setup these tools for yourself by following our TI Launchpad on Linux tutorial.

The LaunchPad can be used as a programmer for any MSP430 which supports the SBW interface. The value-line intended limitation refers simply to the DIP socket on the board, with it’s pinout. The user’s guide even states that it can be used to program anything with the SBW interface.

You figured that out NOW? For me, that was the main reason to get one in the first place. This isn’t exactly news, almost every post I saw about this pointed out that the launchpad is a full featured spy-by-wire debugger.

TI’s estore is a mess. I ordered my Launchpads July 17th and they have yet to arrive. In fact, they have re-vamped their store system since then, and I can no longer even check the order status. Three contact emails and one contact phone number all ended up being bogus.

If it wasn’t for the fact that it is Texas Instruments and they haven’t charged my credit card, I would have assumed it was a scam. I strongly appreciate their effort to enter into the hobbyist market, but it is clear they have a long way to go.

TI are apparently shipping to Digikey, etc. long before any individuals ever get any. I waited till the beginning of September to get the FIVE that I ordered and was still being told that I might not get them till October though I had been promised August or September in July. I cancelled and ordered from Digikey for a whopping 5 cents more and got them in 2 days. I don’t care if I had to pay for shipping, the loss of dev time I took waiting on TI to straighten up would have cost me bigtime if I’d been trying to release a product…grrrrrrr.

Ordered 3 about two weeks ago. Got them the same week. Still haven’t played with them much. I’ve never done any kind of programing so the chips it came with are more than enough right now, but I’m glad the option is there for better chips.

Took 2 and a half months, but I got my Launchpad for 2.15. Should have ordered more :O (Was able to order a free ez430 usb dev thing though haha)

The launchpad is tiny. Business card tall, Less than a business card long.

Also ordered some better chips.
A pair of extra MSP430G2231 (original Launchpad chips. No use getting the other valueline chips really)
A MSP430F2013 N (14-DIP) which isn’t too different from the g2231, and even the msp430F series has DIP sized chips.
MSP430F1232 DW (28-SOIC) 16-bit Low-Power Microcontroller, 8kB Flash, 256B RAM, 10 bit ADC, 1 USART

Soic is probably the smallest size package I’d go with, but SSOP’s arn’t TOO bad. Last time I was using cat5 wires, but those are too heavy, but magnetic wire is perfect for that pitch and easy to use.

Wish TI had a simple Spy-Bi-Wire listing page to see which ones could be used.

Also wish there was a 20 pin dip msp430, with more gpio and a hardware uart (Uart + i2c would be best), but bit-banged i2c with a bunch of i2c i/o expanders works.

I still haven’t received mine, I ordered it the day Hack a Day “Showcased” the board. 10 Aug 10 ??
Still, no LaunchPad in site nor has Ti made any attempts to communicate to me. I just wonder how the hell does Ti stays in the business. I know of two other companies that have a similar problem with NOT receiving their orders in the same fashion. I am wish now I had bought an Arduino board. Well, off to Frys Tomorrow – lol

@ Ldiaz, as long as it supports spy-bi-wire, which is about a quarter of the msp430 chips, and nearly every new one recently, just connect the four lines and v+ and ground from the launchpad. Very simple really.

Did anyone else notice that the spy-by-wire interface on this board is itself powered by an MSP430 processor? It’s not a value-line, it’s much higher-end than the target chip: A MSP430F1612. These sell for $8 – $18 a piece!

I suspect that TI is heavily subsidizing these to promote MSP430s in the hobby market – there’s no way the manufacturing cost could be that low.

ti sends samples of msp430 f2013 and the g2231.
8 different parts with the number of pieces limited to how expensive they are. the dip (N) msp430s are limited to 2 of each. 5+ for things like led drivers and opamps. free shipping and it wont take months like it did for the launchpad.

the f20 is pin compatible can just slot it into the socket instead of using cables.

One idea about the ground connector. I may be wrong but it could be possible to put a jumper across the 3pin ground/ground/vcc connector to short ground and vcc – as the jumper connecting USB supply to uc supply part is disconnected it shouldn’t generate any shorts, but it would give you a ground on one of the pins in the header.
(I don’t have my LaunchPad atm to check it though, so be carefull trying :) ).